St. Louis Cardinals: Quarter-Season Awards

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The Major League Baseball season will be one-quarter of the way over after the St. Louis Cardinals matchup with the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday night (7:15pm CT, FSMW). The Cardinals (20-19) sit in third place in the NL Central, 8 games behind the first place Chicago Cubs (27-10) and 1.5 games behind the second place Pittsburgh Pirates (21-17).

Third place in the division is not where any team wants to be at any point, but all hope is far from lost and the Cardinals and their fans still have hopes for a solid playoff run in 2016.

Though the Cardinals do currently hold the third place spot, there have still been plenty of things to be happy about when looking at some of the individual performances this season. There have been outstanding performances, highlight plays, reemerging stars and surprising standouts for the Cardinals so far in the 2016 campaign.

The MLB gives out awards at the end of every season to the most deserving players from both the National League and the American League. Some of these awards include Comeback Player of the Year, Relief Pitcher of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player.

Since the season has reached the one-quarter mark, we here at Redbird Rants have decided to compile a list of those five categories, but instead of including all Major League teams, this list will consist of the most deserving Cardinals so far in 2016. Without further ado, I present the 2016 quarter-season Cardinals Awards.

Next: Comeback Player of the Year

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Comeback Player of the Year: Yadier Molina

Yadier Molina for Comeback Player of the Year is a choice that seems odd when you’re talking about a player coming off of not only a Gold Glove award winning season, but a Platinum Glove award winning season. While Molina was still the same defensive beast that he has been since joining the Cardinals, he just hasn’t been the same at the plate.

Yadi has missed significant time over the past two seasons, going down with lengthy injuries in both years. In 2015, he tore a ligament in his thumb that cut his regular season short, but when Molina came back in the NLDS against the Cubs he looked like shell of himself.

Going from one of the Cardinals’ most effective offensive weapons to a liability at the plate. Molina finished the series 1-8 with two strikeouts and sat out of the series ending fourth game.

In 2016, Molina has been a whole ‘nother story. Yadier has recovered from his thumb injury better than most fans thought possible. So far, through 2016 Molina has hit a solid .331/.409/.434 line and has held his ground as the defensive anchor for the Cardinals. That .331 average is .061 points higher than the .270 that Molina put up just last year.

Before all is said and done in 2016, if Yadier Molina keeps up the pace he is currently on, he may be in the discussion for the MLB’s Comeback Player of the Year.

Next: Relief Pitcher of the Year

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Relief Pitcher of the Year: Seung-hwan Oh

Seung-hwan Oh, or “The Final Boss” as he was called in South Korea, has surprised many and been a shutdown reliever for the Cardinals so far this season. Oh, 33-years-old, was signed to only a one-year contract with the Cardinals, but the former Korean and Japanese League closer has been nothing but dominant since he joined the ball club.

Oh has been one of the biggest surprises for Cardinals’ fans this season. The right-handed reliever has allowed only three earned runs in his 20.2 innings of work so far in 2016.

One of the most intriguing statistics about Seung-hwan is the amount of strikeouts he has notched in his brief MLB career. Through only 19 appearances, he has struck out 27 batters and has carried a still dropping ERA of 1.31.

Major League batters are still struggling to figure out the rookie reliever and it seems that he is only getting better. In his last three appearances, Oh has tallied seven strikeouts, only one walk and only one hit in 4.1 innings of work.

Like Molina, if Seung-hwan Oh keeps up the torrent pace that he is currently maintaining, then he may be in the running for the MLB’s Relief Pitcher of the Year award.

Next: Rookie of the Year

Rookie of the Year: Aledmys Diaz

The choice of Aledmys Diaz for Cardinals Rookie of the Year was easily the most obvious choice on this list. Anybody that has watched a Cardinals’ game this year, outside of the first game of the season, knows that Aledmys Diaz has been the most consistent offensive threat on the entire team.

Though Aledmys has had his troubles in the field in his early career, his bat has been more than enough to make up for a botched ground ball or two.

The 25-year-old Cuban rookie, has been exactly the lift that the Cardinals have needed in place of Jhonny Peralta, who is currently on the DL with a torn ligament in his thumb. Diaz is hitting at a .372/.400/.645 line, and is doing a ton of damage at the plate.

In fact, that .372 average is currently good enough for second amongst all Major League hitters. Diaz, who was playing at Double-A Springfield and Triple-A Memphis just last season, may just have landed himself a spot on the big league roster, as Ruben Tejada has largely been a disappointment.

Though highly unlikely, if Diaz were to keep up a pace like this he would be a shoe-in for the MLB’s Rookie of the Year and possibly the MVP, but with only 36 appearances under his belt, we can’t get too ahead of ourselves. For now, he is undoubtably the Cardinals’ Rookie of the Year.

Next: Cy Young

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Cy Young: Jaime Garcia

Though no Cardinals’ pitcher has had an outstanding campaign so far, Jaime Garcia is one hurler that has turned in some solid outings in 2016. This may be a controversial decision, as Carlos Martinez has also had some good outings, but a few of Garcia’s starts stick out amongst the rest of the rotation.

Jaime has been a solid pitcher for the Cardinals for most of his time in St. Louis. The left-handed starter’s 2016 campaign has not been any different, as he hasn’t allowed more than four earned runs in any of his eight starts this season. To go along with this, he currently holds a 2.78 ERA, which isn’t spectacular, but will get the job done with a little help from the offense.

Garcia may not be having the best season in the MLB so far, but he has turned out some of the best individual starts of 2016. In his second start of the season Garcia pitched a one-hit complete game that included 13 strikeouts. In two other instances, Garcia allowed no earned runs over seven innings of work.

Unlike the others on this list, Garcia will probably not have a great chance at the MLB’s Cy Young award when the season is concluded. For all Cardinals fans care, if he produces solid starts the way he has been, as a middle-rotation guy, he’s doing his job.

Next: Most Valuable Player

Most Valuable Player: Stephen Piscotty

Stephen Piscotty is the Cardinals’ 2016 Most Valuable Player to this point in the season. If you disagree, to be fair, Yadier Molina and Aledmys Diaz are already mentioned in this list, and Stephen Piscotty is just as good of a choice as either of those two.

So far this season Stephen Piscotty has been one of the most solid and consistent players on the Cardinals’ squad. With a line of .307/.369/.484, Piscotty has held his own in the batting order and brought a threat to the plate each time. Though the power numbers have been down this far in the month of May, Piscotty has hit .323 and been on base at a rate of .373.